Mike Argento: The day the music died at Harley

This memo was sent to York Harley-Davidson employees recently, explaining that radios and other music would no longer be allowed in the manufacturing plant.

Journalists live for these kinds of things, leaked memos. They could be about specious justifications for using torture or drone strikes in the war of terrorism, a major corporation's skill at evading taxes, a piece of a massive conspiracy to establish FEMA camps in Michigan for political dissidents - any variety of madness or weirdness that comes to dominate the news.

Me? I get memos about music.

The memo arrived via email - nobody meets in parking garages or bars anymore - on Valentine's Day, the day after it was issued. It was sent to all of Harley-Davidson's manufacturing employees, from someone named John Dansby II, the vice president of manufacturing.

The subject was listed as "Radios."

It began, "As you are aware, it is imperative that we improve our safety and first-time quality performance."

Yes, a worthy goal because it's all fun and games until someone loses a finger or puts the gas tank on a Fatboy backwards.

"Too many distractions and potential hazards still exist in the workplace that impact our performance every day. We all share responsibility for identifying and eliminating things that do not support continuous improvement."

"We all share responsibility," of course, is the harbinger of something bad. As has been pointed out to me in the past, on a number of occasions, by "we" they often mean "you."

"After much consideration, direct observation and discussions with various stakeholders," Dansby continues, "I have concluded that radios and music are one such distraction to our work.

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That darned rock'n'roll - it's the devil's music, I tell you.

"Therefore," he wrote, "we will be removing all radios and piped-in music through the Andon system effective February 18, 2013."

Reading that, I got the image of Peter Sellers confiscating radios and Gen. Ripper pontificating about the purity and essence of our precious bodily fluids.

The memo says something about this measure allowing "us to be more conscious of our surroundings as we strive to maximize effectiveness of our operating system and our efforts to deliver quality motorcycles."

And by "us," of course, he means "you."

"We are one team and together we can achieve industry-leading performance as we safely create value for our customers and shareholders," the memo says.

Remember, there is no "I" in team, but there is an "m" and an "e." Just pointing it out. That's always bothered me.

"Thank you for your continued support and cooperation," the memo concludes.

The person who sent me the memo - a veteran with more than a quarter century at the plant - wrote, "This is how Harley is treating its employees. They are creating a non-harmonious work environment."

Morale, he wrote, "is in the toilet." And, as a number of his co-workers have been saying, it's been circling the bowl for a while.

"Nothing has gotten better," he wrote. "I think they like disgruntled employees. I am not the only one that feels this place is just a means to a paycheck."

That's a shocking thing for a Harley employee to be saying. For years, Harley enjoyed an amazing level of loyalty from its workers. And the workers got something in return, a decent living. They had pride in their jobs. I remember an old plant manager asking, once, "How many people where you work have 'York Daily Record' tattoos?"

In a very short time, it seems like Harley has been able to wreck that. This is how bad it is: The worker cited "Footloose" in his description of the move. When someone starts citing terrible Kevin Bacon movies, you know something is very wrong.

Working at Harley is tough. It's hard work, and the people who work there are skilled at it. There's more to it than jacking a nut onto a bolt. (Yes, I know, there are people who, for various reasons, don't like Harley workers and believe, as one person once said, "a monkey could do their job." If that were true, Harley would replace it's people with monkeys in a heartbeat. Note to self: Check monkey-labor laws.)

If music makes their work go a little better, as many workers believe, what's the harm?

And there is another issue. If Harley is so concerned about "safety" and "quality," why does the company rely on so many temporary "casual" workers? Wouldn't full-time workers be more capable of maintaining quality and consistency? Is there any evidence that safety and quality have declined while the use of "casual" workers has increased?

And wouldn't trying to raise morale, rather than demoralize workers, make workers pay more attention to detail? Does listening to some Skynyrd or Stones or even Johnny Cash while they're working pose that great a risk?

Harley spokeswoman Maripat Blankenheim said restricting music was "in the best interest of safety, productivity and quality.

"We're running a business and we make decisions in the best interest of the business. It was not punitive."

Told that the change wasn't very popular with some of Harley's workers, she said, "We knew it wouldn't be."

So there you have it.

It's just another leg in the race to compete with the rest of the world - by that, I mean China - in a race to the bottom. It may not seem like much, a paper cut, if anything. But enough of those cuts and you bleed to death.

Mike Argento's column appears Mondays and Fridays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints. Reach him at mike@ydr.com or 771-2046. Read more Argento columns at www.ydr.com/mike. Or follow him on Twitter at FnMikeArgento.